An absolute must see if you have any interest in what has been happening in the Palestinian territories over the past decade while the majority of the world's media look the other way. Co-directed by Israeli director Guy Davidi, it is the story and footage of Emad Burnat, a Palestinian farmer in the West Bank border town of Bil'in, who buys a camera to film his new baby son and gradually becomes a documenter of the weekly protest the villagers undertake against the Israeli government who illegally claim more and more of their land, and the soldiers who arrest them and shoot them for daring to stand in their way. With each camera that either gets smashed or shot by Israeli soldiers we see Emad's youngest son growing up in the face of continued violence and oppression and Emad's spirit and determination begin to waver - it is this personal and intimate portrait of the seemingly endless problems of the Middle East that brings home the true cost of the occupation. It's devastating, and damning, and at the time of writing with renewed violence in Gaza, essential and compulsive viewing.
A real original; a gripping, funny, troubling and extremely moving film, and an entirely satisfying experience - the surreal aspects of the film that might confuse some viewers make perfect sense when considered through the eyes of the protagonist - a six year old Bayou girl called Hushpuppy, living a refugee existence with her father and attempting to make some sense of the world in the face of catastrophic rising waters and storms. The performances of Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry as daughter and father are nothing short of superb - pulsing with pain, life and love. Neither were professional actors, and this was co-writer and director Behn Zeitlin's feature debut. A great achievement.
I can't say I particularly cared for this documentary - it tends to meander and is very choppy in places. As there is no guiding narration it is solely led by the interview content - and some of those interviews struck me as false or self serving, particularly the ones conducted since Harrison's death as they are now impossible to counter - Clapton, Phil Spector, McCartney all tell their sides to fit their own agendas it seems. The mass of footage from the 60s and 70s is genuinely excellent, including some spiky moments of confrontation between the Beatles in the recording studio and in interview. Harrison comes across as a fascinating, conflicted character, struggling to shake off the fame and step out of the shadow of his prolific and controlling band-mates. I came away from the film liking the members of the Beatles a bit less, but their music, including Harrison's few but brilliant contributions, remain untouchable.
Like juanittomx - definitely one of the best of the year, and an instant favourite. My expectations were high given Audiard's superb track record, coupled with Marion Cottiard's winning streak - and I wasn't disappointed. It's beautifully acted by the whole cast and beautifully shot, bursting with sunlight and shadows, which echoes the darkness and light, violence and tenderness cleverly balanced throughout. The whole film is semiotic heaven - it's packed with metaphor and telling imagery but without forcing it down your throat. I will say Stephanie's return to the marine park and the final scenes had me gripped and emotionally raw. I left the cinema in a daze - which only great cinema can do. Highly recommended.
I liked this film, but what's all this "best Bond ever" nonsense? It makes me like it less. No film that depends on references to other, better films can be "the best". There are some clumsy screenwriting and hefty timeline problems:
Giving Bond the same 1964 Aston Martin DB5 from "Goldfinger" with ejector seat and twin machine guns is good fun in the moment but feels strange when you realise that for that to make any sense at all he'd have to be as old as Sean Connery is now. Not to mention the central conceit of the arch villain intentionally getting caught to infiltrate the good guys' stronghold - it's so antique it creaks - beside having already been done rather better this year in "The Avengers"
. It certainly is a good action adventure though, beautifully shot - particularly the Shanghai sequence and last section in the Scottish highlands, and well acted, and my god, it's a thousand times better than "Quantum of Solace" but I think all the modern Bond films have suffered weak or predictable plotting, and unfortunately struggle to stand next to genuinely thrilling modern action films like the Bourne series which raised the bar out of Bond's reach. The realer the world they put Bond into the less convincing it all seems. In M's hearing, her defense of the "shadow ops" of MI6 feels like a defense of the whole franchise in the face of better films - quoting Tennyson isn't a very convincing argument.
The number one problem is Daniel Craig just isn't Bond for me - he has no charisma or panache - he plays Bond as damaged thug that scowls through his movies. Javier Bardem is an interesting villain though, the campness and the deformity feels like a throwback to the 60s and 70s; he does a good deranged, but something didn't quite work in his character; maybe it was his script. Harris and Marlohe are both strong "Bond girls". Albert Finney couldn't seem to decide if he was Scottish or American.
Judi Dench finally gets something to do in this one, fitting for a swan song, but I was totally unmoved by the conclusion. The setting up of Mallory as the new M is so telegraphed by approving nods all round the cast (not to mention the initial letter of his surname) the inevitable death of M was clear as day for me from half way through. As for the desperately clumsy "introduction" of Moneypenny, it was eye-rolling. "We've not been formally introduced" - don't be ridiculous, they've already been on field ops together; that would have been a strange mission briefing.
And let's not mention the horrible product placement - Sony mobile phones, Omega watches....anyone fancy a Heineken by the way?
I've criticised more than I've praised, which a little unfair, but that's what happens when hyperbole starts the "best" tag being thrown around. Give me the six 60s Bond films any day. Meanwhile this is a good addition to the franchise, and hopefully a step toward an even better Bond 24.
Very nearly a decent movie that stumbles about unconvincingly during the first half with an inconsistent tone and black comedy which doesn't always land, but I'm glad I persevered as it gets better as it finds its focus. Sam Rockwell is always worth watching... he's great, as is Angelica Huston, and their scenes together are brilliant. It does finally have something worthwhile to say, it just takes a very circuitous, sometimes crass route getting there.
How can a film pushing an 8.0 rating on imdb be this terrible- no film that takes itself this seriously has any right to be this predictable, badly written or, shamefully for an action thriller, quite so boring. The acting isn't good at all (special honours go to Maggie Grace- so annoying from start to finish it would be a blessing if some kindly Albanians would actually abduct her); the editing from the school of cut fast/shake the camera/cover up the lack of excitement; and the final message horribly trite as Piet pointed out so succinctly below. In Taken 2 are we treated to Kim's first concert as hugely famous pop star, with Dad looking on admiringly? I hope so.
There's a handful of fairly well staged fist and gun fights but nothing remotely approaching the skill of the Bourne Trilogy... but all that fades in the face of shooting an uninvolved and decent wife and mother at her dinner table to prove a point to her corrupt husband. Don't worry though, it's only a flesh wound.
Attenborough gets top billing, but this is more the film of John Gregson and Michael Craig - two officers leading a rag tag and permanently grumbling team of soldiers into the desert to disrupt Rommel's supply lines during the North African campaign. There are some good scenes of espionage, close quarters combat and self sacrifice as the squad shrinks truck by truck and man by man as they struggle to bring the essential information they've uncovered back to base. No classic, but very watchable.
It seems very strange to begin with that the cast of characters assembled to play French prisoners of war in this WW2 drama include French actors like Jean-Pierre Aumont and then Americans and Brits like Hume Cronyn, Cedric Hardwicke and Gene Kelly. Never mind - they're all French, and most refreshingly it is Aumont who ends up having the central role of the gentle lawyer forced into a position as translator for the Nazis and potentially his comrades' saviour rather than Kelly. Both are excellent however, as are the rest of the strong cast including Peter Lorre as one of the sadistic guards. For a film made during the height of the war it really pulls no punches and doesn't flinch away from the atrocities and even draws attention to the fact that being a POW in a Nazi camp was as good as a death sentence -as one character chillingly comments the Germans are likely to turn them all into soap. It owes a debt to Renoir's "La Grande Illusion", no bad thing, but builds to an exciting and explosive climax. It's extremely underrated and is probably one of the best American war films of the 40s - see it if you can.
Extremely weak and rather short thriller where terminally uninteresting and rather dim witted weapons engineer Howard Graham (Joseph Cotten) is bundled out of Istanbul without his wife and luggage by Colonel Haki (Welles, playing Turkish) to protect him from Nazi agents out to kill him, but stupidly ends up being sent on the same boat as his would be assassins. The varied supporting cast including Dolores Del Rio add very little. This is an Orson Welles film in all but name (he co-wrote, co-starred and produced, but didn't direct) - oddly the best thing about it is probably the direction and the sharp B&W cinematography including a climactic building ledge shootout in the rain. Missable.
Good fun, and interesting to see such a specific slice of cultural life captured in that moment. It's also interesting seeing the way the Beatles were individually portrayed (by their choice, or the screenwriters?) - Lennon is the most unhinged of the quartet being especially madcap, Paul is the most aloof and sharpest witted, George basically cool, but the star of the film turns out to be Ringo who decides he wants more from life than sitting behind a drum kit and goes AWOL - hanging out with scruffy orphan kids and pondering the meaning of life. Personally I could have done without the constant screaming of the pubescent girls; the supporting cast are either annoying (Norm 'n' Shake - dull) or just creepy (Wilfred Brambell looking as seedy as ever); the songs are repeated in the final concert from earlier in the film (you could arguably turn it off at that point and not miss anything) which is odd given the number of great songs they already had to work with at that point, and sometimes it tries far too hard to be funny, but it works, even if you're not a Beatles fan.
I knew very little about Violette Szabo before I saw this film, which is probably the best way to watch it - it turns out I've seen a painting of her dozens of times over the years as she is memorialised on a mural outside Stockwell Underground station. Virginia McKenna gives an entirely believable and sympathetic performance as a recently widowed young woman who reluctantly joins the war as a spy for operations in occupied France. The true story of the course of her training and the dangerous missions she was sent on make for a great, exciting war film - and one that deserves to be much more widely seen (only 26 checks at time of writing) - she was clearly an exceptional woman and this is a very good film.
Impressively made and powerfully themed WW2 story following the captain and crew of the Compass Rose, escorting allied convoys in waters patrolled by U-boats. Jack Hawkins gives a brilliant performance as Cmd. Ericson, leading a largely inexperienced crew against impossible odds, and who has his nerves rattled in some incredibly tense and surprisingly dark scenes. He is ably supported by a cast including Donald Sinden and Denholm Elliott. Certainly one of the pinnacles of British war movies, shorn as it is of all sentimentality and propaganda.
Seen at the London Film Festival this is the first feature by Xan Cassavetes (daughter of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands) and basically wheels out the vampire tropes with a 70s/80s retro schtick, complete with chunky purple titles and electronic score. At the very least Cassavetes should be thanked for attempting to drag the vampire movie back from the Twilight debacle into a bloody and adult place, but doing it with such a weak script and storyline doesn't help, nor being so dependent on eroticism - a times it feels like a cheap soft core film given how much sex is crammed in. The largely European cast look good with their clothes off and the blue contacts in but can't really act all that well - where the film really succeeds is in the atmospheric night time cinematography. I doubt very much if this will get a cinema release but will definitely go down well with vampire fetishists on DVD.
I was lucky enough to see this in a preview screening at the London Film Festival - it's a very beautiful, traditionally drawn French language animation that tells the story of a forbidden friendship between two outsiders in their own worlds - a brave, artistically minded orphan mouse and a brusque but big hearted bear, who both fall foul of the law. This is bound to be a huge hit when it has a general release - even though the books the story is based on aren't as well known in Britain as they are in France. It deserves all success - it's genuinely touching and very funny in parts, and the watercolour backgrounds and character animations are wonderful. Simply gorgeous.
Moderately diverting war time drama featuring Michael Redgrave and Dirk Bogarde amongst a four man air crew shot down into the sea and the attempts of a Navy rescue boat to find their dinghy and pick up the vital documents they are carrying before they drown, starve or drift into enemy territory. It's straight forward stuff, ticking all the British war movie boxes, stuff upper lips and courage under fire. Probably the most enduring thing about the film may prove to be Noel Coward's typically witty and waspish comment in relation to the title and the two leading men- "I can't think why not, everyone else has."
daisyaday said it all really - the costumes and art direction are first rate, but beyond that the film feels less than the sum of its parts - Burton is a good fit for a tortured Henry VIII, determined to get what he wants at the expense of everything, but the ghosts of Charles Laughton and particularly Robert Shaw loom large. In fact there are good number of similarities to "A Man For All Seasons" which covers much the same part of Henry's reign from a different perspective, apart from the dialogue which is gripping in Robert Bolt's play and screenplay - here it is quite pedestrian, and apart from a few scenes fails to really burst into life. Geneviève Bujold gives a passionate performance as Anne Boyeln, Anthony Quayle is a brilliant Wolsey and John Colicos a suitably sneaky Thomas Cromwell though.
A bonkers, beautifully animated film - the level of detail is extraordinary - but the coherence of the story somewhat less so, although I found myself caught up with the fates of Black and White, particularly in the middle section of the film where the trio of assassins begin to hunt them. The finale is mind bending stuff too. Quite unlike any other anime I've seen, and although I didn't love it, it's definitely worth a look for the amazingly detailed and colourful cityscape alone.
This odd thriller sits uncomfortably next to the great Hitchcock thrillers of two years previous and two years after (Rear Window and Vertigo respectively), given it shares a lot with both- lovely camera work, Jimmy Stewart in the lead, and another fantastic Bernard Hermann score- perhaps one of the best. It's a shame the plot is so weak by comparison, or that we have to watch Doris Day singing all of "Que Sera Sera" twice. The Albert Hall sequence is famous, but oddly pedestrian... we wait, like the gunman, for the moment to arrive and thoughts begin to creep in...
Why do we care about this rotund foreign prime minister? How in earth is the gunman going to accurately hit his target from that distance with a tiny handgun? There must be easier ways to assassinate someone than with 5000 potential witnesses. A cymbal crash won't actually be louder than a bullet will it? Is Doris just going to stand there crying for the entire sequence?
After that it all gets sillier, the finale baffingly prosaic followed by a misjudged coda. For all that there's a lot to enjoy- Hitch is still in full control but the material seriously lets him down
A very ordinary crime thriller with a disappointingly tenuous link to the unexplainable and much of what made the TV series enjoyable. The characters aren't served well here- the story is weak and it all feels unnecessarily tagged on. The strangest thing is seeing sceptic Scully transformed into a brain surgeon, who amusingly works out how to perform a rare and dangerous stem cell operation from a google search... god bless the internet
A movie of literal halves - real world London and the fantasy world of Meanwhile City which incorporates an odd amalgam of Brazil, V for Vendetta, the Thief series of video games and Watchmen. It just about pays off, but you have to watch a solid hour of confusing multiple strand, multiple levels of reality plot before it starts to come together. It looks good and the cast are fine - although personally I'm getting a bit tired of Eva Green's wonky British accent and petulant screen persona now, and Sam Riley isn't a very compelling character - but Ryan Phillipe (the only American, not explained) and Bernard Hill are very watchable. A stronger script would have balanced out the early head scratching, and the end is a bit over the top, but it's not too bad.
Utterly crazy, but if you're prepared to go along for the ride entirely fascinating and entertaining, full of dream logic and bizarre violence and humour. In a short prologue we see "ourselves" in a cinema as if in the director's dream. Then Denis Lavant shows off some mighty versatility playing Oscar, a performer, driven around Paris in a stretch limo taking on a range of characters over the course of a day. Why he is performing is never made entirely clear, or for who, he kills and is killed, and resurrected, but there are clues in the dialogue to help you make your own conclusions - the cameras have gotten so small that they are now invisible he says. But it doesn't really matter - to have "answers" seems to contradict Carax's intentions. It's a study of personality, performance, loneliness, watching and being watched, and is challenging and sometimes thrilling cinema that will doubtless enthral and infuriate audiences in equal measure. I loved it.
A strong idea, great atmospheric cinematography and a very strong cast are undermined by some misjudged SFX of little wriggling beasties. If you can overlook the spiky foetus puppets flapping around there's a lot to admire - the stalled tractor in the slurry pit for example is a superb scene of suspense - and the ever unfortunate Sean Harris gets to act out an idea later re-used in "Prometheus" -
another film he fails to survive - impregnating his girlfriend with infected DNA, resulting in a mutant "baby"
. And if nothing else "Isolation" taps into something we all know: cows are weird and a little bit creepy. Horror fans should definitely give it a look.
I had high hopes for this, particularly following Rian Johnson's superb "Brick", and it's good to see some blockbusting, (mostly) smart sci-fi on the big screen but Looper is very far from perfect - an entertaining ride for sure, but the plot isn't tight enough and falls apart under scrutiny, which is a great shame and not deflected by Old Joe's flippant comment in the diner about not bothering to explain the time travel... he won't because he can't - the screenplay cheats. Putting that aside the film really comes into it's own in the second half where we meet Sara and Cid and some emotions come into play - the scenes of revelations and consequences surrounding them are great sci-fi cinema. My biggest problem was the distracting make up job to make Joseph Gordon Levitt look like Bruce Willis - he manages a decent impression but his face and eyes just look wrong, not much use when you're the main character. Personally I wish they'd just used one actor - Levitt, or someone else, and aged him convincingly and pulled off some split screen SFX, or dropped the lookalike convention entirely... would anyone have really cared? All in all a very entertaining film, but no classic.
I think you'd have to be in a very forgiving kind of mood to really enjoy "Gunga Din" in this day and age. In the first instance there's Grant, McLaglen and Fairbanks Jr goofing around while natives and soldiers are being massacred on all sides which is a pretty strange tonal choice under the circumstances, the more slapstick it becomes the odder the drama seems. Then there's the fairly traditional usage of white actors in the leading Indian roles - middle aged Jewish American Sam Jaffe has a stab at playing the title role (a teenage Indian water carrier) in blackface and it's pretty embarrassing. They obviously wanted Sabu, seemingly Hollywood's only Indian, for the part - but he wasn't available. Frankly they should have waited until he was, although you'd think there must have been more than one competent Hindi actor out there somewhere. Never mind. Lastly there's the whole myth of the British Raj as a worthy heroic action in the first place and Gunga Din naively idolising the military bluster and arrogance of colonialism - the Thuggee cult probably have a point, the British probably deserved to be strangled in their beds. The action sequences are pretty good, although mostly sped up, and Annie the elephant is delightful. Just don't think too much the snakes bouncing around on wires in the snake pit, or British soldiers wielding American guns and saluting wrong way, or about how Grant can survive a lashing, being shot and then bayonetted right through the back in the final showdown. It's exceptionally silly.
Comments 126 - 150 of 429
Movie comment on Five Broken Cameras
dombrewer
An absolute must see if you have any interest in what has been happening in the Palestinian territories over the past decade while the majority of the world's media look the other way. Co-directed by Israeli director Guy Davidi, it is the story and footage of Emad Burnat, a Palestinian farmer in the West Bank border town of Bil'in, who buys a camera to film his new baby son and gradually becomes a documenter of the weekly protest the villagers undertake against the Israeli government who illegally claim more and more of their land, and the soldiers who arrest them and shoot them for daring to stand in their way. With each camera that either gets smashed or shot by Israeli soldiers we see Emad's youngest son growing up in the face of continued violence and oppression and Emad's spirit and determination begin to waver - it is this personal and intimate portrait of the seemingly endless problems of the Middle East that brings home the true cost of the occupation. It's devastating, and damning, and at the time of writing with renewed violence in Gaza, essential and compulsive viewing.Movie comment on Beasts of the Southern Wild
dombrewer
A real original; a gripping, funny, troubling and extremely moving film, and an entirely satisfying experience - the surreal aspects of the film that might confuse some viewers make perfect sense when considered through the eyes of the protagonist - a six year old Bayou girl called Hushpuppy, living a refugee existence with her father and attempting to make some sense of the world in the face of catastrophic rising waters and storms. The performances of Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry as daughter and father are nothing short of superb - pulsing with pain, life and love. Neither were professional actors, and this was co-writer and director Behn Zeitlin's feature debut. A great achievement.Movie comment on George Harrison: Living in the Material World
dombrewer
I can't say I particularly cared for this documentary - it tends to meander and is very choppy in places. As there is no guiding narration it is solely led by the interview content - and some of those interviews struck me as false or self serving, particularly the ones conducted since Harrison's death as they are now impossible to counter - Clapton, Phil Spector, McCartney all tell their sides to fit their own agendas it seems. The mass of footage from the 60s and 70s is genuinely excellent, including some spiky moments of confrontation between the Beatles in the recording studio and in interview. Harrison comes across as a fascinating, conflicted character, struggling to shake off the fame and step out of the shadow of his prolific and controlling band-mates. I came away from the film liking the members of the Beatles a bit less, but their music, including Harrison's few but brilliant contributions, remain untouchable.Movie comment on De rouille et d'os
dombrewer
Like juanittomx - definitely one of the best of the year, and an instant favourite. My expectations were high given Audiard's superb track record, coupled with Marion Cottiard's winning streak - and I wasn't disappointed. It's beautifully acted by the whole cast and beautifully shot, bursting with sunlight and shadows, which echoes the darkness and light, violence and tenderness cleverly balanced throughout. The whole film is semiotic heaven - it's packed with metaphor and telling imagery but without forcing it down your throat. I will say Stephanie's return to the marine park and the final scenes had me gripped and emotionally raw. I left the cinema in a daze - which only great cinema can do. Highly recommended.Movie comment on Skyfall
dombrewer
I liked this film, but what's all this "best Bond ever" nonsense? It makes me like it less. No film that depends on references to other, better films can be "the best". There are some clumsy screenwriting and hefty timeline problems:The number one problem is Daniel Craig just isn't Bond for me - he has no charisma or panache - he plays Bond as damaged thug that scowls through his movies. Javier Bardem is an interesting villain though, the campness and the deformity feels like a throwback to the 60s and 70s; he does a good deranged, but something didn't quite work in his character; maybe it was his script. Harris and Marlohe are both strong "Bond girls". Albert Finney couldn't seem to decide if he was Scottish or American.
I've criticised more than I've praised, which a little unfair, but that's what happens when hyperbole starts the "best" tag being thrown around. Give me the six 60s Bond films any day. Meanwhile this is a good addition to the franchise, and hopefully a step toward an even better Bond 24.
Movie comment on Choke
dombrewer
Very nearly a decent movie that stumbles about unconvincingly during the first half with an inconsistent tone and black comedy which doesn't always land, but I'm glad I persevered as it gets better as it finds its focus. Sam Rockwell is always worth watching... he's great, as is Angelica Huston, and their scenes together are brilliant. It does finally have something worthwhile to say, it just takes a very circuitous, sometimes crass route getting there.Movie comment on Taken
dombrewer
How can a film pushing an 8.0 rating on imdb be this terrible- no film that takes itself this seriously has any right to be this predictable, badly written or, shamefully for an action thriller, quite so boring. The acting isn't good at all (special honours go to Maggie Grace- so annoying from start to finish it would be a blessing if some kindly Albanians would actually abduct her); the editing from the school of cut fast/shake the camera/cover up the lack of excitement; and the final message horribly trite as Piet pointed out so succinctly below. In Taken 2 are we treated to Kim's first concert as hugely famous pop star, with Dad looking on admiringly? I hope so.There's a handful of fairly well staged fist and gun fights but nothing remotely approaching the skill of the Bourne Trilogy... but all that fades in the face of shooting an uninvolved and decent wife and mother at her dinner table to prove a point to her corrupt husband. Don't worry though, it's only a flesh wound.
Movie comment on Sea of Sand
dombrewer
Attenborough gets top billing, but this is more the film of John Gregson and Michael Craig - two officers leading a rag tag and permanently grumbling team of soldiers into the desert to disrupt Rommel's supply lines during the North African campaign. There are some good scenes of espionage, close quarters combat and self sacrifice as the squad shrinks truck by truck and man by man as they struggle to bring the essential information they've uncovered back to base. No classic, but very watchable.Movie comment on The Cross of Lorraine
dombrewer
It seems very strange to begin with that the cast of characters assembled to play French prisoners of war in this WW2 drama include French actors like Jean-Pierre Aumont and then Americans and Brits like Hume Cronyn, Cedric Hardwicke and Gene Kelly. Never mind - they're all French, and most refreshingly it is Aumont who ends up having the central role of the gentle lawyer forced into a position as translator for the Nazis and potentially his comrades' saviour rather than Kelly. Both are excellent however, as are the rest of the strong cast including Peter Lorre as one of the sadistic guards. For a film made during the height of the war it really pulls no punches and doesn't flinch away from the atrocities and even draws attention to the fact that being a POW in a Nazi camp was as good as a death sentence -as one character chillingly comments the Germans are likely to turn them all into soap. It owes a debt to Renoir's "La Grande Illusion", no bad thing, but builds to an exciting and explosive climax. It's extremely underrated and is probably one of the best American war films of the 40s - see it if you can.Movie comment on Journey Into Fear
dombrewer
Extremely weak and rather short thriller where terminally uninteresting and rather dim witted weapons engineer Howard Graham (Joseph Cotten) is bundled out of Istanbul without his wife and luggage by Colonel Haki (Welles, playing Turkish) to protect him from Nazi agents out to kill him, but stupidly ends up being sent on the same boat as his would be assassins. The varied supporting cast including Dolores Del Rio add very little. This is an Orson Welles film in all but name (he co-wrote, co-starred and produced, but didn't direct) - oddly the best thing about it is probably the direction and the sharp B&W cinematography including a climactic building ledge shootout in the rain. Missable.Movie comment on A Hard Day's Night
dombrewer
Good fun, and interesting to see such a specific slice of cultural life captured in that moment. It's also interesting seeing the way the Beatles were individually portrayed (by their choice, or the screenwriters?) - Lennon is the most unhinged of the quartet being especially madcap, Paul is the most aloof and sharpest witted, George basically cool, but the star of the film turns out to be Ringo who decides he wants more from life than sitting behind a drum kit and goes AWOL - hanging out with scruffy orphan kids and pondering the meaning of life. Personally I could have done without the constant screaming of the pubescent girls; the supporting cast are either annoying (Norm 'n' Shake - dull) or just creepy (Wilfred Brambell looking as seedy as ever); the songs are repeated in the final concert from earlier in the film (you could arguably turn it off at that point and not miss anything) which is odd given the number of great songs they already had to work with at that point, and sometimes it tries far too hard to be funny, but it works, even if you're not a Beatles fan.Movie comment on Carve Her Name with Pride
dombrewer
I knew very little about Violette Szabo before I saw this film, which is probably the best way to watch it - it turns out I've seen a painting of her dozens of times over the years as she is memorialised on a mural outside Stockwell Underground station. Virginia McKenna gives an entirely believable and sympathetic performance as a recently widowed young woman who reluctantly joins the war as a spy for operations in occupied France. The true story of the course of her training and the dangerous missions she was sent on make for a great, exciting war film - and one that deserves to be much more widely seen (only 26 checks at time of writing) - she was clearly an exceptional woman and this is a very good film.Movie comment on The Cruel Sea
dombrewer
Impressively made and powerfully themed WW2 story following the captain and crew of the Compass Rose, escorting allied convoys in waters patrolled by U-boats. Jack Hawkins gives a brilliant performance as Cmd. Ericson, leading a largely inexperienced crew against impossible odds, and who has his nerves rattled in some incredibly tense and surprisingly dark scenes. He is ably supported by a cast including Donald Sinden and Denholm Elliott. Certainly one of the pinnacles of British war movies, shorn as it is of all sentimentality and propaganda.Movie comment on Kiss of the Damned
dombrewer
Seen at the London Film Festival this is the first feature by Xan Cassavetes (daughter of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands) and basically wheels out the vampire tropes with a 70s/80s retro schtick, complete with chunky purple titles and electronic score. At the very least Cassavetes should be thanked for attempting to drag the vampire movie back from the Twilight debacle into a bloody and adult place, but doing it with such a weak script and storyline doesn't help, nor being so dependent on eroticism - a times it feels like a cheap soft core film given how much sex is crammed in. The largely European cast look good with their clothes off and the blue contacts in but can't really act all that well - where the film really succeeds is in the atmospheric night time cinematography. I doubt very much if this will get a cinema release but will definitely go down well with vampire fetishists on DVD.Movie comment on Ernest et Célestine
dombrewer
I was lucky enough to see this in a preview screening at the London Film Festival - it's a very beautiful, traditionally drawn French language animation that tells the story of a forbidden friendship between two outsiders in their own worlds - a brave, artistically minded orphan mouse and a brusque but big hearted bear, who both fall foul of the law. This is bound to be a huge hit when it has a general release - even though the books the story is based on aren't as well known in Britain as they are in France. It deserves all success - it's genuinely touching and very funny in parts, and the watercolour backgrounds and character animations are wonderful. Simply gorgeous.Movie comment on The Sea Shall Not Have Them
dombrewer
Moderately diverting war time drama featuring Michael Redgrave and Dirk Bogarde amongst a four man air crew shot down into the sea and the attempts of a Navy rescue boat to find their dinghy and pick up the vital documents they are carrying before they drown, starve or drift into enemy territory. It's straight forward stuff, ticking all the British war movie boxes, stuff upper lips and courage under fire. Probably the most enduring thing about the film may prove to be Noel Coward's typically witty and waspish comment in relation to the title and the two leading men- "I can't think why not, everyone else has."Movie comment on Anne of the Thousand Days
dombrewer
daisyaday said it all really - the costumes and art direction are first rate, but beyond that the film feels less than the sum of its parts - Burton is a good fit for a tortured Henry VIII, determined to get what he wants at the expense of everything, but the ghosts of Charles Laughton and particularly Robert Shaw loom large. In fact there are good number of similarities to "A Man For All Seasons" which covers much the same part of Henry's reign from a different perspective, apart from the dialogue which is gripping in Robert Bolt's play and screenplay - here it is quite pedestrian, and apart from a few scenes fails to really burst into life. Geneviève Bujold gives a passionate performance as Anne Boyeln, Anthony Quayle is a brilliant Wolsey and John Colicos a suitably sneaky Thomas Cromwell though.Movie comment on Tekkon kinkurîto
dombrewer
A bonkers, beautifully animated film - the level of detail is extraordinary - but the coherence of the story somewhat less so, although I found myself caught up with the fates of Black and White, particularly in the middle section of the film where the trio of assassins begin to hunt them. The finale is mind bending stuff too. Quite unlike any other anime I've seen, and although I didn't love it, it's definitely worth a look for the amazingly detailed and colourful cityscape alone.Movie comment on The Man Who Knew Too Much
dombrewer
This odd thriller sits uncomfortably next to the great Hitchcock thrillers of two years previous and two years after (Rear Window and Vertigo respectively), given it shares a lot with both- lovely camera work, Jimmy Stewart in the lead, and another fantastic Bernard Hermann score- perhaps one of the best. It's a shame the plot is so weak by comparison, or that we have to watch Doris Day singing all of "Que Sera Sera" twice. The Albert Hall sequence is famous, but oddly pedestrian... we wait, like the gunman, for the moment to arrive and thoughts begin to creep in...Why do we care about this rotund foreign prime minister? How in earth is the gunman going to accurately hit his target from that distance with a tiny handgun? There must be easier ways to assassinate someone than with 5000 potential witnesses. A cymbal crash won't actually be louder than a bullet will it? Is Doris just going to stand there crying for the entire sequence?
After that it all gets sillier, the finale baffingly prosaic followed by a misjudged coda. For all that there's a lot to enjoy- Hitch is still in full control but the material seriously lets him down
Movie comment on The X Files: I Want to Believe
dombrewer
A very ordinary crime thriller with a disappointingly tenuous link to the unexplainable and much of what made the TV series enjoyable. The characters aren't served well here- the story is weak and it all feels unnecessarily tagged on. The strangest thing is seeing sceptic Scully transformed into a brain surgeon, who amusingly works out how to perform a rare and dangerous stem cell operation from a google search... god bless the internetMovie comment on Franklyn
dombrewer
A movie of literal halves - real world London and the fantasy world of Meanwhile City which incorporates an odd amalgam of Brazil, V for Vendetta, the Thief series of video games and Watchmen. It just about pays off, but you have to watch a solid hour of confusing multiple strand, multiple levels of reality plot before it starts to come together. It looks good and the cast are fine - although personally I'm getting a bit tired of Eva Green's wonky British accent and petulant screen persona now, and Sam Riley isn't a very compelling character - but Ryan Phillipe (the only American, not explained) and Bernard Hill are very watchable. A stronger script would have balanced out the early head scratching, and the end is a bit over the top, but it's not too bad.Movie comment on Holy Motors
dombrewer
Utterly crazy, but if you're prepared to go along for the ride entirely fascinating and entertaining, full of dream logic and bizarre violence and humour. In a short prologue we see "ourselves" in a cinema as if in the director's dream. Then Denis Lavant shows off some mighty versatility playing Oscar, a performer, driven around Paris in a stretch limo taking on a range of characters over the course of a day. Why he is performing is never made entirely clear, or for who, he kills and is killed, and resurrected, but there are clues in the dialogue to help you make your own conclusions - the cameras have gotten so small that they are now invisible he says. But it doesn't really matter - to have "answers" seems to contradict Carax's intentions. It's a study of personality, performance, loneliness, watching and being watched, and is challenging and sometimes thrilling cinema that will doubtless enthral and infuriate audiences in equal measure. I loved it.Movie comment on Isolation
dombrewer
A strong idea, great atmospheric cinematography and a very strong cast are undermined by some misjudged SFX of little wriggling beasties. If you can overlook the spiky foetus puppets flapping around there's a lot to admire - the stalled tractor in the slurry pit for example is a superb scene of suspense - and the ever unfortunate Sean Harris gets to act out an idea later re-used in "Prometheus" -Movie comment on Looper
dombrewer
I had high hopes for this, particularly following Rian Johnson's superb "Brick", and it's good to see some blockbusting, (mostly) smart sci-fi on the big screen but Looper is very far from perfect - an entertaining ride for sure, but the plot isn't tight enough and falls apart under scrutiny, which is a great shame and not deflected by Old Joe's flippant comment in the diner about not bothering to explain the time travel... he won't because he can't - the screenplay cheats. Putting that aside the film really comes into it's own in the second half where we meet Sara and Cid and some emotions come into play - the scenes of revelations and consequences surrounding them are great sci-fi cinema. My biggest problem was the distracting make up job to make Joseph Gordon Levitt look like Bruce Willis - he manages a decent impression but his face and eyes just look wrong, not much use when you're the main character. Personally I wish they'd just used one actor - Levitt, or someone else, and aged him convincingly and pulled off some split screen SFX, or dropped the lookalike convention entirely... would anyone have really cared? All in all a very entertaining film, but no classic.Movie comment on Gunga Din
dombrewer
I think you'd have to be in a very forgiving kind of mood to really enjoy "Gunga Din" in this day and age. In the first instance there's Grant, McLaglen and Fairbanks Jr goofing around while natives and soldiers are being massacred on all sides which is a pretty strange tonal choice under the circumstances, the more slapstick it becomes the odder the drama seems. Then there's the fairly traditional usage of white actors in the leading Indian roles - middle aged Jewish American Sam Jaffe has a stab at playing the title role (a teenage Indian water carrier) in blackface and it's pretty embarrassing. They obviously wanted Sabu, seemingly Hollywood's only Indian, for the part - but he wasn't available. Frankly they should have waited until he was, although you'd think there must have been more than one competent Hindi actor out there somewhere. Never mind. Lastly there's the whole myth of the British Raj as a worthy heroic action in the first place and Gunga Din naively idolising the military bluster and arrogance of colonialism - the Thuggee cult probably have a point, the British probably deserved to be strangled in their beds. The action sequences are pretty good, although mostly sped up, and Annie the elephant is delightful. Just don't think too much the snakes bouncing around on wires in the snake pit, or British soldiers wielding American guns and saluting wrong way, or about how Grant can survive a lashing, being shot and then bayonetted right through the back in the final showdown. It's exceptionally silly.Showing items 126 – 150 of 429